I hope your mind isn’t too tired. Let’s continue our mental stroll.
The neighborhood south is Uptown which has seen better days, but has also seen worse, so lets agree it is getting better. Big Chicks Bar and the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge saved the neighborhood from being bulldozed into the lake when it hit bottom, and I haven't a single fact to back that up. Uptown was THE entertainment center of America long before Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin and other greats made a movies at the Essanay Studios (sounds like ‘S N A’ Studios), which is a super-cool art-deco building now part of St. Augustine College.
Uptown has the Uptown Theatre (not in use), the Aragon Ballroom, the Riviera Theatre, and Graceland Cemetery (take a tour!). We're all hoping to get it back to its heyday, which spanned from the Expo in 1893 to the 1940s. My Nana told me a few personal stories when she and her girlfriends would visit Uptown, but they’re treasures I wont share here.
South of Graceland Cemetery is Wrigley Field (you can tour it too!) and the Wrigleyville neighborhood, a 10 minute EL ride from me but plan on 20 minutes if there is a ball game. It is a tight knit neighborhood but they know where their bread is buttered and welcome the throngs of visitors to the bars and ballgames. The ballpark is one of Chicago's gems and has great views of the Lake and the Loop. Only 1/2 the people are there to watch the game. The other 1/2 are there to people watch or 'to be seen'.
I thank the Ricketts for their dedication to the Cubs. The September 19, 2015 episode “Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!” has Tom Ricketts as guest in the “That’s Not My Job” segment. He’s quick and funny and you can tell he genuinely loves Wrigley Field and the Cubs, so I wont disparage the new jumbotrons. I think you can listen the episode online at WBEZ radio.
Now things are going to get even more interesting. Deep breath and....strolll...
To the east of Wrigleyville and the south of me is Boystown. In 1998 it was the United State's first officially recognized 'gay village'. (Really? "Boystown"? As if the ‘girls’ never visited. And as late as 1998 it was the first in USA?) It is a ton of fun not just for the GLBTs, but for anyone with even the slightest curiosity ( as in ‘to learn’, not as in ‘to gawk’). 15 minutes on the EL and a 5 minute walk and you're at Roscoe's Bar, at the corner of Halsted St and Roscoe St, the epicenter of the 'hood.
Across the street is Sidetrack (no ‘s’, no ‘bar’ no ‘Chicago’ - just Sidetrack), which sells the most Absolut Vodka in the world. But to figure out how Sidetrack sells so much Absolut, the president of the company visited from Sweden - TWICE!
Between you and me, I heard years and year ago - long before the flavored booze market took-off - Absolut offered the owners mucho dinero (not krona, not euros, nor Robert; DINERO) for Sidetrack’s Absolut Currant Crush recipe (its a slurp-ee with booze). The owners turned it down, instead opting to receive royalties on each every Absolut Currant Crush sold world-wide! Oh yeah, we Chicagoans are pretty good business people! That may be an urban legend, but it is a good story.
The owners Sidetrack are generous. For years employees received health care benefits. And I’ll bet between the frequent free event space and bar service given for fundraisers and Sidetrack’s direct donations, it gives to all of Chicago close to as much as Boeing.